Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 17 verses 1 through 7:
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
The people wander and their spirits waiver. Fear sets in and so do anger and frustration. They blame Moses. They look up with indignation at God.
But then the LORD tells them to look not up, but down, and also in. Buried deep within is the water they will need to survive. It’s been there all along, in the depths of the earth, buried for a billion years, waiting on the Israelites to come and open the cascade within.
It is there, inside, this cataract of spiritual resource welled within us all; but it always takes desperation to find it.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Exodus chapters 19 through 21.
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